Sunday, 19 October 2008

Farming cork oak in Evora, Portugal. The cork is stacked to mature. I understand that these days many bottles have screw-on tops, so this is a dying industry. The trees are all cork oak trees and the bark is stripped off every ten years.

9 comments:

Is it a good thing or a bad one, this screw on top idea for wine? It's always sad when an industry dies, there is always a human cost. Growing and harvesting cork maybe has environmental impacts? I think that the cork stoppers look so much nicer but find the screw on types so much easier, as a farmer, where do you stand, or are you on the fence like me?

I've heard the arguments that because of the number of wine bottles that are'corked' that screw tops are environmentally better. Then there is the argument (which I prefer) that cork growing is sustainable and helps to keep a unique ecosystem alive and thriving.

I really don't know enough about it acornmoon. I agree with you that screw tops are easier but think the wine buffs want corks. As for the effect on the environment I don't know. The bark regenerates after removal, so I am not sure what that means for the environment. Nor do I know how dependent the cork oak farmers are on that crop.

I find it interesting the bark renews itself - on most trees strip off the bark and the tree dies. Sounds like using corks would have less effect than screw on tops found in the bellies of many animals - just my two cents worth :)